World Youth Qualifiers Announced [UPDATED]

CROSSVILLE, TN [UPDATED, MAY 17, 2018] The US Chess Federation is pleased to announce the list of players who have qualified to participate in the 2018 World Youth Chess Championships to be held in Halkidiki, Greece, October 19-31, 2018. These students earned this honor by achieving the required peak post tournament ratings according to the US Chess April 2018 Rating Supplement. Additionally, players may qualify as Personal Rights (PR) player by winning a medal at the 2017 World Youth or 2017 Pan American Youth Championships.

The top players by rating in each age category are considered the United States Official Representatives by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, but all players may compete in the event as part of the US delegation. If an Official Representative (listed as OR below) in an age category declines to attend, then the highest rated player (according to the US Chess April 2018 Supplement) in that category who is registered with the US Chess Office by July 16 will be considered the Official U.S. Representative.

Details concerning the 2018 World Youth are currently found on the invitation page. Interested players should contact US Chess FIDE Events Manager Grant Oen ([email protected]) and US Chess Assistant Director of Events Pete Karagianis ([email protected]) by July 16 to confirm their participation.

Qualified players, listed below, are exempt from US Chess administration fees. Only the Official U.S. Representatives (OR) and Personal Rights (PR) players from the previous World Youth and Pan American Youth are eligible to receive further financial support from US Chess and/or the organizers. However, the FIDE World Youth is an open tournament and any US Chess member who meets the age and eligibility requirements may pay their own way to play. The age/gender categories for the World Youth include Open and Girls – Under 14, Under 16, and Under 18.

A player’s age for this tournament is his/her age as of January 1, 2018. The link to the US Chess invitation requirements is: http://www.uschess.org/content/view/7865/131/. The deadline for players to register with the US Chess office is July 16.

Congratulations to all the players who qualified for the 2018 World Youth!

The younger kids will most likely be World Cadet qualifiers as well, but their ratings are high enough to officially qualify for the U14 section. I think the World Cadet qualifiers will be based on the May ratings list, so we can probably expect the qualifiers for that event to be announced next month. By the way, the World Cadets and World Youth overlap on the calendar this year, so kids won’t be able to attend both even if they qualify for both.

On further thought, technically, many of the kids listed in the U14 category seem to have qualified for U16 by rating though they’re not listed in the U16 section. Also, it’s not clear in what order the players are listed. It’s not strictly by rating. So color me confused.

According to Scholastic National Invitational Event and Award Requirements

Qualifying by personal right:
A player who receives a medal at the World Youth/World Cadet or gold medal at the Pan-American Youth Festival
Wang Annie
Chasin Nico
Liu Aristo
Tsay Vincent
Matus Nastassja